Ahead of the 2024 Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF, 2022 champion Georgia Hall has praised the tournament for the impact it has made on local women and girls.
The inaugural edition of the tournament in 2020 was a watershed moment for the Kingdom and marked the first time that professional female golfers played there competitively.
It was estimated that the country had fewer than 20 registered female golfers before the ground-breaking tournament at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, but now boasts over 1000.
This was aided by the launch of the ‘Ladies First Club’, a first of its kind initiative that provided Saudi women with their first golf club membership and a pathway to enter the game in the best possible manner.
“I'm massively into helping youngsters and women to get into golf, it's what is needed to help grow the game,” said Hall.
“I've already met a few women amateurs that have taken up golf again since this tournament [Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF] has been on and we were lucky enough to play with a couple of them in the Pro-Ams the last few years.
“The more that women can get into golf in general, the better. I think it's great that countries have us here and to be competing at such a great tournament with a big prize fund, [women’s golf] has definitely improved and it’s great to see.”
Last year the Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF made history as the first golf tournament to achieve prize fund parity, increasing the purse five-fold to $5 million USD to match the men’s PIF Saudi International.
2020 champion Emily Pedersen echoed that increased global exposure through investment in events across multiple continents is the key ingredient in growing women’s golf.
“It's important to show your face in a lot of different countries and the more you play in in America, Asia, here, and different places in Europe, it helps grow the game everywhere,” she said.
“It's good to be seen as a player that is playing globally and then hopefully, the better you play, the more you show up to the different events, that's going to inspire people to maybe turn pro or maybe go out there and travel to different places in the world to play golf.”
The tournament gets underway at Riyadh Golf Club from February 15-18.
